Internet Innumeracy Revisited
Posted On: Monday - March 9th 2020 6:26PM MST
In Topics: General Stupidity Internets Media Stupidity
This past Friday Peak Stupidity featured some highly-innumerate (6 orders-of-magnitude) stupidity seen on MSNBS. The two talking heads got their "source information" from a tweet by one Mekita Rivas. Just based on a comment I'd read, I'd thought that Miss Rivas was "trolling" the two "journalist" who repeated her new math on the TV.
Nope, it turns out that Miss Rivas is also really bad at math. Per this Newsweek* article, the woman was not kidding, and is just really bad at arithmetic. She likes to tweet out pictures of the her food, her slim body, and how to pronounce her first name, so ... there's that ...
I'll tell you what Miss Rivas: You learn how to divide, and then I'll learn how to pronounce your name.
Here's some of this now-infamous tweeter's biography from commenter "Hail" on the unz website:
HI, I’M MEKITA RIVAS.(I really want to be sympathetic here to this lady, but that "lens of gender and race" crap makes that difficult.) Miss Rivas is the artsy-fartsy type, and there's nothing wrong with that. I think the problem is with the tweeting in general. People make some really stupid mistakes in what they write and say (I've been there) and regret them. There's just a lot more regret when it's in the form of a tweet ridiculed due to its being believed and broadcasted by two dipshit talking heads on TV.
I’m a freelance journalist and creative consultant based in Washington, D.C. I’m currently an in-house copywriter at [solidcore] and a contributing writer at Refinery29. My writing has also been published in The Washington Post, Architectural Digest, Food & Wine, Wine Enthusiast, Glamour, Brides, Teen Vogue, Self, and others. I primarily cover culture, fashion, travel, and wellness through the lens of gender and race. As a consultant, I work with clients on content strategy, copywriting, and editorial best practices.
I earned my undergraduate degrees in journalism and English from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. My current creative projects include a short film screenplay and a collection of personal essays. I also maintain a lifestyle blog on this site.
When not writing — or thinking about writing — I enjoy high intensity workouts, calming yoga sessions, sustainably sourced food and wine, and planning my next escapade.
I can't blame Miss Rivas for privatizing all of her on-line presence after this gaffe, per the Newsweek article. The fact that two esteemed (haha) journalists repeated the error with not a lick of DIMS thinking shows us where the high stupidity lies. Oh, per the article, lets blame it on the production team (OK a bit) and racism and sexism:
Another Twitter user noted that the show's production staff is as at fault for the mistake as Williams and Gay, and characterized the criticisms of Gay as sexist and racist.OK, here's one of the "criticisms" per Newsweek's James Crowley:
Many people on Twitter have criticized Williams and Gay for their error. Journalist Michael Tracey wrote how much money Bloomberg would actually need to have in order to give each person a million dollars. Daily Wire reporter Ryan Saavedra wrote that the actual amount Bloomberg's ad spending would measure out to would be $1.53 per person.That's EXACTLY what the 2 tweets below this excerpt (in the article) say. It's not criticism but simply correction. Man, these people are sensitive! This Crowley writer is a hack too. It's all journalistic stupidity, one after another, right on down the chain of command!
* Yeah, apparently they are still around.
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WHO Cares. Don't stigmatize me, Bro!
Posted On: Saturday - March 7th 2020 6:38PM MST
In Topics: Music Political Correctness Healthcare Stupidity World Political Stupidity Kung Flu Stupidity
This looks likes like the same tweet ridiculed by Peak Stupidity in a previous post, but it's not quite. Whether this is a reply or the other was is something I've had a really hard time with when reading series of these things on blogs.
Here are the "DO"s and "DON'T"s again, but they are different, though no less worthy of disdainful laughter. Of the "DO"s, I suppose the term "contracting" with respect to a contagious disease is fine and a part of the normal terminology. "Acquiring" is too, but as with the strange doctor terminology you'll hear behind the counter, it sounds an awful lot like these people ARE convinced that a case of Corona means 24 12 oz. bottles of beer. "Aquire" has that connotation for most uses, doesn't it? Most people don't particularly aspire to acquire diseases, as in, they don't make an effort to get it. OK, fine, I don't mind the old terminology.
The "DON'T"s, however, show an unbounded PC stupidity on the part of this WHO tweeter. "Transmitting", "Infecting" and "spreading" of a disease are standard terms used by laymen and health professionals alike. They are active verbs, but nobody figures they imply purposeful action.
This PC bullshit about what you DO say and what you DON'T say is not helping anyone keep from getting the Coronavirus. I'd personally rather be STIGMATIZED than end up in the hospital coughing buckets of diverse multi-colored phlegm and ballistically projecting a diverse stream of multi-colored diarrhea. But, that's just me...
How would you know this World Health Organization is serious about disease when you read this kind of thing? Go heal people. Who the hell are you, WHO, to tell me how to talk? Just Who are you?! WHO, WHO, WHO, WHO?
(Yes, it's just another excuse for some more The Who music.)
Who Are You? is the title song from an album the band released in mid-August, 1978. Their famous drummer, Kieth Moon, died 3 weeks later. He sounds pretty good here! "Who" knew he was going to get sick, or, more like, drink a whole bunch of alcohol?
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Being a Millennial
Posted On: Saturday - March 7th 2020 12:02PM MST
In Topics: Music Political Correctness Salesmen Race/Genetics Customer Care Muh Generation
This post is based on actual events. [Aren't they all?! - Ed] Peak Stupidity has spent time at the Starbucks coffee shop* more than occasionally lately, so I suppose we have not practiced what we preached regarding other source of caffeine (also, because I don't drink coffee to begin with, just hot chocolate).
We've railed on Starbucks before for their Corporate Diversity-appeasement (in Nationwide 10,000-Store Barista-Based Synchronized Struggle Session a Success!) and treehugger-style stupidity (in Grasping at Straws) in the past. This post is closely related to the former of these realms of stupidity.
As I sat outside the place waiting for some friends, I saw a bum-type guy that I'd seen plenty of times in the area sitting at the next table. As I asked him to lend me a chair, I could tell he was not one of the more normally seen, mentally-ill homeless (he was maybe homeless, but not mentally ill), This was due to his very cogent manner of replying to me. He was looking for A/C power for his big laptop, and when I mentioned that he'd probably have to get it inside, he noted that their were outlets that I hadn't seen behind him (which didn't end up to have any power though).
Somehow the guy knew not to bum money from me**. Later, after my friends had come, this guy did start talking, in a very friendly manner, mind you, almost as a salesman would, to a young Millennial lady on the way in to get her dose of caffeine (likely, she checked in on the app - so cool.) He got a dollar out of her, something a more lower-EQ bum would probably not have gotten. About a minute later, one of the barista girls, also a Millennial, like almost all of them, came out to admonish the guy.
The thing is, on the face of it, this particular guy was not really the kind of bum that worries the customers. One could blow off his saleman-like banter, and he was nice about it. Additionally, he didn't look dirty or smell really bad. Were it up to me, he'd not be the guy that I'd kick off Starbucks property. The young lady who gave him a buck may have complained inside, but I kinda doubt it. That'd be kind of low-down in fact.
However, Starbucks has put themselves between a rock and a hard place through their own stupidity. During the brewhaha a couple of years back involving certain privileged people wanting to abuse the Big-Biz chain's common areas (especially the bathrooms), instead of explaining property rights and standing firm, corporate Starbucks chose Diversity-Appeasement. The employees were subjected to the struggle sessions linked-to above, and the whole situation with bums became tricky going forward ("going forward" is Big-Biz speak for "after that").
The onus has been on the store managers and employees to handle things very delicately. You can't piss off the bum, but you don't want customers scared of them, something Millennials, most of the customers, are very prone to being. I told these Millennials almost 2 years ago, regarding Corporate Starbucks' treating them to PC sessions, that, contrary to the lyrics of John Cougar (from his Melon Camp), Authority does NOT ALWAYS WIN! See Starbucks - fake coupons and raising hell.
Back to the anecdote again, finally, the young lady barista, possibly the manager on duty, come to think of it, had to talk very carefully to the guy. It sounded sweet, but she also sounded scared. No, there was no reason to be scared of this particular guy - she was scared of saying the wrong thing. Her fear of saying the wrong thing was palpable in both her voice and look on her face. I haven't mentioned yet that the bum was a black guy. This just made it worse. She can't be a racist, but Corporate policy is to get this guy to leave, very nicely, as not to cause a protest later. What a position to be in! I don't envy these people.
It's not like I or my friends could help much either, or even wanted to, in this case. The guy wasn't really causing any trouble, as the trouble was more in the mind of the Millennial who'd given him a buck. Additionally, it's not like this Millennial would appreciate us older guys saying anything to the man. It'd just set her off in some manner, thinking we were now the racists. I didn't bring this Starbucks PC shit on, and I'm not gonna help them with their problems, unless it's close to violence.
Now, that I mentioned the race of the bum, I can tell you that I am very certain that the customer would not have given a white guy a buck. She either felt her brainwashed-in guilt about her "white privilege" or thought it would look bad if she didn't give the nice black guy some money. So, she was really part of the problem too, as her giving the guy money caused him to be specifically ejectable from the premises. Her biggest goal in all of this was, yeah, you got it, not to offend anyone.
Well, this bum mentioned, as he was being ever-so-carefullyy-ejected that he was trying to raise another buck or two to get a fancy coffee. (That would have been a way to stay inside for a few hours, as it was a bit chilly, and even get some power for his big lap-top.) He got up to go without much protest, As he got up, though, he must have whispered something really rude or crude into the barista/manager's ear, as her look changed from relieved to horrified, and she made some remark hurrying back inside. Even that was low-keyed, as to not be a racist or something. I was very surprised at this last part. You try to give a guy some credit, and then he goes and says something nasty, and sure to be a fireable offense had he had a job, to the Millennial trying her best not to offend anybody in the whole world.
Like I said, I don't envy the Millennials for this stuff. Will their offspring 4 decades into the future berate them as they try to avoid the gulags and the daily struggle sessions with "Really, Millennial?"
Now, way off in a distant world from the sad America of the Millennial there was a song by a band called Starbuck. It has nothing else to do with this post. This is a real blast from a distant past, and you don't get much xylophone music around these parts:
Moonlight Feels Right is from Starbuck's 1976 album of the same name.
* For more thoughts on the ubiquity of the coffee shops in general, see Thoughts from the coffee shop ... and Starbucks vs. the Viennese Kaffeehaus.
** In general, I only give money to some soft-spoken people on the street who I best can tell will not blow it on $4 lattes, liquor, or lottery tickets.
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The 2020 Media, with an Incredible Way of Putting It
Posted On: Friday - March 6th 2020 1:01PM MST
In Topics: General Stupidity TV, aka Gov't Media Humor Media Stupidity
As promised just earlier today, we will present some stupidity that is SO stupid, that we're just gonna have to start over and re-calculate that best fit curve up top*. Sure, there are outliers, but the people in the video below are not out there lying - they are all just extremely stupid.
This is not your ordinary moved-the-decimal-point-wrong error or even ordinary innumeracy. This is an error of 6 orders of magnitude! Now, that can be done, if you try to do a quick calculation in your head and are dealing with large numbers such as the US national debt in dollars or the size of our galaxy in miles. However, these people are on TV - do they not have ANYBODY to check their work? (That's the even scarier part - perhaps they do.)
Wait, wait, ... "Don't tell us if you're ahead of us on the math." - TV Newsman Brian Williams.
See, now even if you're not good with numbers, results of calculations or even just qualitative results should be checked with DIMS - Does It Make Sense? That helps - a lot! In this case, could Mara Gay, member of the NY Times Editorial Board, no less, and the Newsman Mr. Williams have not thought just a bit, even as they were saying this (though better yet, when they first read the tweet)?:
"Hmmm, that's not all of Mr. Bloomberg's money, even..." I mean he's not sitting under a piece of newspaper on a grate outside the Bloomberg building or anything. "... so, that means any of these rich guys could give away just some of their money and make all Americans millionaires. But, wait, some of these guys ARE philanthropists and give away 1/2 of their money, but we're still NOT all millionaires or even close." Does it make sense that we have Socialist politicians wanting to tax the rich a whole lot, but even Mr. Yang never gave a number over $1,000 a month? I mean he's Chinese, so you know HE can do math right...?
Could you not check a division calculation with a multiplication? When you hear "327 million Americans" and then "500 million dollars" then doesn't it just scream out "oh, over a buck but not 2 bucks"? Oh, or break out a calculator or something.
Well, as both these elite Media folks at MSNBC put it, regarding this math tweet by Mekita Rivas: "It's an incredible way of putting it." These people are the elites and they have deigned to tell Americans what's good for us for years, yet they are complete idiots. Please remember this video when you want to believe one of these people on ANYTHING. If they are right, it's just by accident.
Oh, and yes, I would like my $1.53 in the form of a cashier's check please. Thanks, Mike!
PS: From the little bit I've read, Mr. (I guess, I dunno, WTF kind of name is Mekita?) Rivas was not serious. If this was indeed a trolling effort, it was spectacular, and it does motivate me to write a quick post about trolling.
* I noticed a while back that we need to redo that graphic at the top sometime, as we have very obviously not observed the peak as predicted on the x-axis.
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[UPDATED 10/20/23:] Youtube took off the good version of the video. now, the best I got is someone's video off his phone of the TV set.
[UPDATED 04/14/25:]. They took that one down, I see. What, are they embarrassed or something? Thanks, Adam Smith (via The Unz Review comments, for this clip.
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Peak Constitutional Amendment - XII
Posted On: Friday - March 6th 2020 10:14AM MST
In Topics: Websites History Liberty/Libertarianism Morning Constitutional
(Continued from Amendment XI. My Doc advised Peak Stupidity to continue this Morning Constitutional on a regular basic to prevent irregularity. There are 3 pieces of extremely high stupidity that crossed the
The 12th Amendment of the US Constitution was ratified 15 years after the original document was implemented*, on June 15th of 1804. The footnote below explains the dates I'm using (now corrected in the post on Amendment 11) but discussed in detail in this page on the "Constitution Center" site.
I described that site already in that previous post. I'll probably use it for material for all the posts to come too. As I wrote, the damn thing has the usual political correctness on the front pages. Who'd expect that on a US Constitution site? [It IS the current year! - Ed] So, for anyone interested, I'll just consider only the actual US Constitution text and discussion material from their "Interactive Constitution" link as their Home Page (Remember home pages? That brings back memories.)
Amendment XII for the graphically-challenged and those who want to read the whole long thing it's titled "Election of President and Vice President":
The Electors shall meet in their respective states and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President, and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice-President, and of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate; -- The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted; -- The person having the greatest number of votes for President, shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed; and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by states, the representation from each state having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice. And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a President whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day of March next following, then the Vice-President shall act as President, as in case of the death or other constitutional disability of the President.-- The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice-President, shall be the Vice-President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed, and if no person have a majority, then from the two highest numbers on the list, the Senate shall choose the Vice-President; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice. But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.It's quite wordy, but it's more just election housekeeping (no pun intended). The impetus behind Amendment XII was the long and complicated resolution of the Presidential election of 1800 between incumbent Federalist John Adams and Democratic-Republican candidate Thomas Jefferson, also described nicely by the same writer, one Mr. Sanford Levinson:
They ran against each other again in 1800, and both Adams and Jefferson had “running mates,” Charles Cotesworth Pinckney from South Carolina in the case of Adams (and the Federalist Party) and Aaron Burr of New York, for Jefferson. The Federalist Party electors figured out that it was important not to cast both of their votes for Adams and Pinckney, for that would create a tie and, if both got a majority of the vote, throw the election into the House; the Democratic-Republican electors were not so sagacious. They dutifully cast both of their votes for their party’s champions, creating a tie majority vote that forced the House to choose between Jefferson and Burr.At the time, there was some talk about switching to a popular vote. (We now seem to hear that often, from the modern Democrats - only when they lose, though ...) The electoral college system was designed for elections of actual public servants, guys who would drop their real work to help out this new experiment in government, not professional politicians. The idea was that there would be no political parties, but that was already a dead letter within a decade of the founding of the former-Republic.
The tie vote exposed deep problems in the 1787 system. The one-state/one-vote rule had the practical effect of giving Delaware’s sole Representative Bayard, an ardent Federalist, the same voting power as Virginia, then the largest state (and home, of course, of Jefferson). And what if a state had an even number of representatives who split evening on their choice? In that case, the state’s vote was not cast at all. Given that there were 16 states in the Union in 1801, nine delegations had to agree on their choice. Only on the 36th ballot did Bayard agree to vote for Jefferson and to break the deadlock (by which time at least two Jeffersonian governors, from Pennsylvania and Virginia, were threatening to call out their state militias and order them to march on the new national capitol in Washington, D.C.**). Jefferson was peacefully inaugurated on March 4, and the all-important precedent was set for peaceful transfer of power. Yet the original electoral college system was exposed as problematic, and there was widespread agreement that something had to be done. But what?
However, rather than drop the Electoral College completely, the writers of the 12th Amendment modified the procedures that had been enunciated in Article II, Section I - "The Executive Branch", of the original document. Now, just 15 years in, it was acknowledged that political parties had emerged, and would emerge, so a deadlock between the candidate for President and his own party's VP "running-mate"*** should be prevented. The electors would have 2 votes, but now, one explicitly for the President and one for the VP.
Does this all matter now? No, I don't think so, because the the electors themselves, of the electoral college system, seem to not have the power there were meant to. No, I don't mean the very important idea of the election being decided by the States, via their popular vote, vs. a national popular vote. I just mean that the electors don't normally go against the votes of their States. The left would like to change that, but I foresee the kind of trouble that DOES involve militias were that to be implemented!
The Founders intended us to have a Republic, if you recall, not a Democracy. These electors were actually given a lot of power (by their States) to make this important decision in the Presidential vote, even with the ability to overrule their voters. I don't see the Founders of our country as gods, mind you, but they put a lot of damn thought into this thing. Even as a big Constitutionalist, though, I still don't think it would be good for an elector to go against the wishes of his own state.
Amendment XII cleaned up a few details that could have caused more trouble in Presidential elections, that's all, just some administrative housekeeping. It was no Amendment II or X, I can tell you that.
* I use the word "implement" now because the signing was in 1787, the ratification process started in late 1788, the ratification of the BoR was in 1790, but the new Federal government was implemented in1789.
** I miss the old States! Don't you?
*** "Running mate" wouldn't have meant anything before political parties. The VP was just the guy who got the 2nd most number of electoral votes.
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WHO cares
Posted On: Thursday - March 5th 2020 11:07PM MST
In Topics: Music Political Correctness Healthcare Stupidity World Political Stupidity Kung Flu Stupidity
(Note: not the original physical tweet. This is a facsimile thereof.)
We've got to be pretty close to Peak Stupidity when this international health organization is more worried about what people call this disease than preventing its spread. I'm not a big fan of international organizations with any real power anyway, but it'd be great if the World Health Organization spent time investigating the threats to the health of the World's population, rather than the threats to Political Correctness.
As a matter of fact, a number of these different new viruses DID originate in the Orient. The origin of this one really has been narrowed down to the city of Wuhan from the first time we've heard of it. Wuhan IS in China. China IS in Asia. Finally, that's a load of crap that the virus was named COVID-19 to avoid "stigmatization". It is named, as one might figure, COrona VIrus Disease from 2019.
I guess there are plenty of real health professionals - doctors, nurses, and scientists - in the WHO who do serious work, so this tweet is likely the product of an Affirmative Action hire WHO probably doesn't know a coronavirus from his ass. He knows how to tweet though, so promote him to PC tweeter to keep him out of the way of those getting work done. I'm surprised blue-check-mark WHO guy didn't go full on General Casey with "What's happening with these people dying is a tragedy, but I think it would be an even greater tragedy if our viral diversity becomes a casualty." I mean, there may be lots of coughing up of yellow phlegm and explosive diarrhea, but so long as no one gets stigmatized ...
This stuff is just embarrassing to anyone who is under the impression he lives in the 1st World. WHO is head of the WHO, anyway ...
... Roger Daltrey or Pete Townsend?
Down with the WHO! Long live The WHO and long live rock!
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Los Angeles Attorney General's Husband for Pres - 2020!
Posted On: Wednesday - March 4th 2020 5:29PM MST
In Topics: Elections '16 - '24 Liberty/Libertarianism ctrl-left
I came across this story yesterday. Having not paid attention to what goes on in the Land of Fruits and Nuts, South, for quite a few years, I don't know these characters. The black man in the video below is the husband of the LA DA (easy for me to say). There were "Black Live Matter" protesters outside right up to his house, and this guy had had enough.
I have no idea what the brew-haha was about, and I don't care that they are BLM versus antifa or some other low-IQ goons. They don't have a right to be on this guy's lawn, much less his front porch. If he says leave, property rights say they need to leave. This guy just tried to encourage them a tad.
I've got the video clip set to show just the actual event, with all the talking heads of the Lyin' Press cut out of the scene. That's what they do, right?
Hopefully I wouldn't be disappointed by most of the stuff that comes out of the mouth of his wife regularly during office hours, though likely so, but I'll say without knowing, that this guy is a real American.
Campaign Motto: GET! OFF! OF! OUR! PORCH!
PS: Should it be "LA Attorney's General husband" in the post title? I'm no William Safire, known to order two Whopper's Junior ... old The Onion post, you'll be lovin' it!
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Peak Constitutional Amendment - XI
Posted On: Wednesday - March 4th 2020 4:52PM MST
In Topics: History Liberty/Libertarianism Morning Constitutional
(For the non-Libertarian readers who couldn't give a damn about "Muh Constitution" or just those bored with this stuff, not to worry - these posts will come only once or twice a week.)
Upon North Carolina's ratification on Feb. 7th 1795 as the 12th of 15 States, Amend XI was made part of the Law of the Land.
It's been a month and a half since our post Peak Constitutional Amendment. We promised to go through the 17 Amendments to the US Constitution since the Bill of Rights, the 10 Amendments of which were signed up to within a couple of years of the same time as the original document.* This 11th Amendment, ratified only 6 years after the original document was implemented, is honestly one that I never have known or thought about before.
This one looks like nothing but a slight administrative matter of jurisdiction of the courts - again, in case the .jpg above is not clear:
The Judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by Citizens of another State, or by Citizens or Subjects of any Foreign State.I've written before that you don't need to be a SCROTUS member or lawyer of any kind to understand the US Constitution. This one seems clear enough - Federal courts cannot be used for to adjudicate a certain lawsuits against one of the States. It is meant to modify the bolded portion of Article III (on the Judicial branch of government), Section 2 below:
The judicial Power shall extend to all Cases, in Law and Equity, arising under this Constitution, the Laws of the United States, and Treaties made, or which shall be made, under their Authority;--to all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls;--to all Cases of admiralty and maritime Jurisdiction;-- to Controversies to which the United States shall be a Party;--to Controversies between two or more States;--between a State and Citizens of another State;--between Citizens of different States;--between Citizens of the same State claiming Lands under Grants of different States, and between a State, or the Citizens thereof, and foreign States, Citizens or Subjects.The Federalists, those that (quite rightly, it turns out) feared a big Federal government, were worried about lawsuits filed by individuals against the various States being decided in Federal courts, i.e. by the Federal government.
A website called Constitutioncenter.org has some great background and explanation on this and the entire Constitution. The home page has the usual PC BS on it, but one can see upon clicking to the Constitution itself, that this is a great site for understanding of this supposed Law of the Land. I will likely use this often for the posts to come on these 17 Amendments.
Here is the discussion on Amendment XI from the same site, and, we come to what one might expect - "Anything you Amend with can and will be used against you ...:"
The Supreme Court’s decisions afford states immunities from suit that appear to go beyond the terms of the Eleventh Amendment. For example, as noted, suits by individuals against their own state have been barred; suits by foreign states are also barred. The Court has further held that states enjoy immunity in state court from suits based on federal law. Alden v. Maine (1999). Moreover, states may “consent” to suits that appear to be barred by the Amendment. These decisions suggest that the Court may regard state sovereign immunity—the legal privilege by which the state government cannot be sued, at least in its own courts, without its consent–as an underlying constitutional “postulate,”—an assumption reflected but not fully captured by the words of the Eleventh Amendment.See, now our Founders wanted us as individuals to be able to have grievances redressed, by our State and the Feds via lawsuits if need be. Does that happen much anymore? Most of us feel powerless against the Department of Motor Vehicles, much less against the higher-ups in State government.
While the states continue to enjoy broad sovereign immunity from suit, the Supreme Court does allow suits against state officers in certain circumstances, thus mitigating the effect of sovereign immunity. In particular, the Court does not read the Amendment to bar suits against state officers that seek court orders to prevent future violations of federal law. Moreover, suits by other states, and suits by the United States to enforce federal laws, are also permitted.Oh, I see, so the Feds can sue the States. I may have to run this by Ann Coulter, but something tells me that even just half a decade after the Constitution was ratified, these Amenders, of which there were to be many more to come, were already screwing things up for us.
* There was an understanding that the Constitution would not be ratified by certain states were the Bill of Rights amendments not included.
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[UPDATED 03/06:] Corrected Bill of Rights timetable. The document was not signed together with the BoR, only approved by certain states with an understanding of the BoR being incorporated (2 more of original 12 of the "Massachusetts Compromise" were not).
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Consumer Care Productions presents: "A Fistful of Pennies"
Posted On: Monday - March 2nd 2020 11:18AM MST
In Topics: Humor Customer Care
It's been a week since Peak Stupidity's last "Customer Care" curmudgeonry, but this time it's just a humorous story. The star of this story, your blogger here, worked for half a year or so many moons ago delivering pizza pies. Yeah, we called them pizza pies back then, just like in Italy or at least movies like Moonstruck. (Man, that movie, The Godfather I, and the Sopranos DVDs always make me hungry. Those people know how to cook!)
Seeing as this was a while back, the large pizza pie I was delivering to a woman's dorm one night was $5.77. This was not just for double-cheese and a few measly pepperonis, mind you. It was something like a 4-item pie, one that would cost around $20 today - there's that inflation again - and no this was not in the 1960s! This was some good NY-style shit, and I LUVED, LUVED, LUVED that occasional bad order that we all got to eat, unless somebody had butchered it with vegetable toppings!
Now, I earned a minimum wage salary, 6% of the orders that I delivered, and the tips that were pretty much nonexistent from the students. The latter was pretty understandable as they were mostly low-budget, 2-to-a-room kids that were not living high on the taxpayers' generous loans. "It was a different time, you understand."
This pizza place was a small outfit with good people (I'll get back to that at the end), so I had no sign on my car or anything else that still wouldn't have helped with parking anyway, come to think of it. This area was packed on weekend nights, and one could not do the job if he tried to find a real parking space. Those meter maids worked up an appetite of their own through the wee hours of the morning, so you just had to park somewhere off the street, put your hazard lights on, and keep it quick.
I had a great deal going, having delivered 3 pies already to nearby dorms from the same parking spot, and I decided to go for the last one. It was taking a big chance, as a parking ticket would wipe out 1/4 of the whole 10-hour nights earnings. So I ran like hell across the big yard, somewhat in the dark, up the steps, and into the nicely-furnished lobby, where the boyfriend and the girl were waiting. (You couldn't go up to the rooms in the girls' dorms.) The guy gave me 6 bucks. I didn't expect any tip, but as I went through my pockets I had no change. Where the change went, I sure don't recollect, but I probably put it into the car ashtray before this last delivery.
"Hey, can you spot me the 23 cents*, I'm parked in a bad spot and I gotta run." "NOPE." Don't get me wrong, I believe in verbal contracts, and a deal ($5.77) is a deal. However, he was gonna ruin my night with this crap. The threat of a parking ticket that would ruin my night put me in a fight-or-flight situation. I ran the 200 yards back to the car, grabbed a Fistful of Pennies out of the ashtray, and ran back, counting out 23 of them from one hand to the other as I ran. I flew up the steps and into the lobby.
"Here's your change", I said as I threw 23 pennies sidearmed across the coffee table, under the coffee table, under the TV, and on and under a couple of couches. I had no chance to see the looks on their faces, unfortunately, as I ran back 200 yards in the dark to the car. Yea, no ticket!
I was back at the store 3 minutes later, and the boss had already received some kind of phone call. He was looking at me with a big grin as I stepped through the doorway - "The customer is always right, you know." It's great to have a good boss that knows who's conscientious, but no, I was never cut out for Customer Care.
* Even today, that'd be, just based on pizza inflation, 75 cents, and would you not give a young guy a break?
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Goodbye to Rosie, the Queen of Corona
Posted On: Saturday - February 29th 2020 3:25PM MST
In Topics: Humor Preppers and Prepping Kung Flu Stupidity
Peak Stupidity has only discussed the COVID-19 virus twice so far - here and here. That is likely because we stay off the infotainment and pick and choose what to read. I am personally not worried. health-wise, though I do see the big slightly-panicky story being a factor in a possible major economic downturn.
Prepping for short-term economic trouble is a good idea, but one that people should have accomplished beforehand. I'll tell you that, just per the famous Instapundit (Glenn Reynolds) line, "I'll believe this new virus is a serious threat when the people who tell me it's a serious threat act like it's a serious threat." Is the US Feral Government taking serious steps to keep the virus from entering via the hundreds of entry points to our country? Or, is it still more important not to stigmatize! people due to their susceptibility to this virus?
When the PC stops, then I'll believe we have a serious problem. That's how it seems to work. I'll state it the other way too: when things get real, only then will the PC stop.
I'm no expert, and I'm not taking any precautions in particular, as of yet. (We do have a real advantage here in America still, in that lots of us still live in uncrowded conditions. That is a BIG PLUS.) I don't want to give out any advise, besides: If a friend offers you a case of Corona, especially an Oriental guy with the sniffles, make sure he means this case of Corona:
I've heard the lime slice will knock the germs out cold... along with a Tequila shot.
PS: The title comes from the song Me & Julio, paraphrased long ago in Last dig at Øb☭ma - to a great tune by Paul Simon.
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Hey, Ed-Schools, leave them teachers alone!
Posted On: Saturday - February 29th 2020 12:19PM MST
In Topics: Music Educational Stupidity
How can you have any pudding when you don't eat your meat?!"
Peak Stupidity has been beating (heh-he) on this topic for a while now, most recently with The Professional Educators and a while ago with Advancements in Higher Education. I'm running into it every week, that is, the results of what should be very good public schooling (the kids are great!), but with emphasis on Ed-School experimental methods and "strategies" versus just plain teaching reading, writing, and arithmetic.
I put "strategies" in quotes here, as, per that older post of the 2 linked-to above, the teachers use words like that, straight out of Education School, in their descriptions of what the little ones are doing in class. Here's the exact quote:
"Readers of non-fiction use strategies to determine the meaning of unknown words."The kids wouldn't know this concept, and the parents don't want to hear about it. Get them reading the books, that's all. When they get done, they get stickers to put on a chart. Then, we see:
Strategies I use to tell time to the nearest 5 minutes.No, no, no! You let them play with the paper clock hands, and they either get it or they don't. If they do, they get stickers. What I'd like to see is the lady grading the math problems that the young boy missed due to pure laziness. There are no red marks though, as the teacher is too busy apparently, with her fancy teaching methods, to check the math and spelling.
People, such as writers of Peak Stupidity even, give the Chinese people/culture a hard time for it's severe emphasis on rote memorization. Sure, show them the math a couple of ways, tell them how to check the subtraction by adding them back up, stuff like that. As I've written about the fractions though, a few times of that is ENOUGH. I did times tables in 4th grade, as I recall, but I heard nothing about strategies, just 7 x 8 = 56, nuff said. If they get them all right, yes, you got it, more stickers!
What I'm seeing is not even the "New Math" or anything else with a name. It's just teachers wanting to use their methodologies to show this is not kid stuff. But it is! That's not to deride the occupation of teaching, but what is required is a general knowledge, lots of patience, a way with words, and a fondness for kids.
I think the reason for all this BS, leaving government interference alone for a bit, is that nobody wants to feel like she has wasted $25,000 of
If they'd never taken those extra required years getting teaching methodologies, strategies, and other -ies beat into them, I really believe these ladies at the elementary school would be much happier just relaxing about what they are doing and not wanting to be in some kind of new program or referenced in "the literature". They could just enjoy the satisfaction involved in teaching the 3 r's to the kiddies, as in the old days of the one-room schoolhouse.
As for the Schools of Education, all in all you're just another brick in the wall!
Talk about your concept albums! Pink Floyd's* 1979 album The Wall was arguably** at Peak Concept Album. This is the kind of stuff I don't want anyone listening to standing on the subway with his earbuds in. That's bullshit, man! You need a real hifi, no, NOT WIFI, HIFI! You need speakers with at least 12" woofers, a comfortable couch, maybe a black light or two ... etc..
Peak Stupidity has featured the music of Pink Floyd only once before with Brain Damage/Eclipse from The Dark Side of the Moon.
Pink Floyd:
Syd Barrett – lead and rhythm guitars, vocals
Nick Mason – drums, percussion, vocals
Bob Klose – lead guitar
Roger Waters – bass, vocals, rhythm guitar
Richard Wright – keyboards, piano, organ, vocals
David Gilmour – lead and rhythm guitars, vocals, bass, keyboards
* For the young Millennials still reading(?), no, he was no kin to Floyd the barber of Mayberry, North Carolina. It's the name of the band.
** I just noticed that Peak Stupidity mentioned that already
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Vote Bernie for Overseer
Posted On: Thursday - February 27th 2020 7:55PM MST
In Topics: Elections '16 - '24 Humor Liberty/Libertarianism
(No, sadly, the bare-breasted free milk brigade didn't make in to the Charleston event.)
I didn't watch the Blue-squad talk stupid to each other a couple of nights back, but I hear tell that old Socialist Bernie brought up the subject of drugs. Now, I could see Joe Biden being on something a lot more potent, but if one would expect any of these D-candidates to know about the pot, it'd be Bernie.
Mr. Sanders brought up the War on Drugs and his determination to terminate it, were he President. I It is the one thing we have left to agree on. That's his doing not mine, as he has flipped 180-degrees on the most important issues of guns and immigration, so to hell with him in general.
Anyway, I could see Bernie 30 years back being the exact type of pothead discussed in Peak Stupidity's Former Future Captains of the Hemp Industry. As we chatted by the bike path underneath the bridge, Mr. Sanders would have extolled the virtues of hemp and his plans to be a big player in the hemp industry, supplying rope and quality paper to the masses ... with 25% off discounts for potheads ...
Now Bernie Sanders suggests that those who have been on the losing end of the Drug War - no, not the drugs, they've been #Winning - those poor black people that have been railroaded* by the system - should be in key positions in this burgeoning Marijuana industry. You've got to keep in mind that free markets mean absolutely nothing to a Socialist. I'm not sure how Mr. Sanders intends to arrange exactly who should be Captains of this industry.
Perhaps he should look to the past, say 155 or so years back and further. It would take some study, and a repeal of Amendment XIV, but would his prospective Presidential Administration consider an ideal way to run the Marijuana business? He probably wouldn't want to use the word "slavery" or anything, but how 'bout "indentured weed-bondage"? Get those people who have been denied economic opportunities by Jim Crow, his brother Mo, and the whole Crow family at the DEA, back to work. Out in the fields, down in the basements of the Neo-Grow Houses, everywhere, opportunity awaits for a revival of the work ethic.
Bernie for Overseer of the peculiar institution where Mary Jane is King!
"Once you set foot on the Sanders plantation, son, you'd best set your ... mind to ... what was the last part?"
♩ ♩♬ "I'm gonna ease down, turn around,
pick a bale of doobies,
gonna ease down, turn around,
smoke a bale a day ...
Oh, Lordy, smoke a bale of doobies,,
Oh, Lordy, pick .. a .. it ... takes a ...
...
....clear mind to make it.."
* I'll grant him that many of all races have been.
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The US Constitution is not a suicide pact
Posted On: Thursday - February 27th 2020 9:22AM MST
In Topics: Liberty/Libertarianism Morning Constitutional
You've likely heard that line before in discussions of the power and limits of the US Feral Gov't. I've seen this phrase used to disparage the US Constitution and those that care about it. They will tell you that following this document to its basic principles is a bad idea, as others will use it against us. This is not the manner I mean here.
In our 1 1/2-month-ago post Peak Constitutional Amendment, Peak Stupidity promised to have more. That post was just an introduction. What I want to do is to just mention the Bill of Rights for a bit here, as in that previous post. Then I will go over the next 17 ACTUAL* amendments to the US Constitution step-by-step, with evisceration with extreme prejudice inserted as necessary. I really don't know whether they are all bad, so this is suspenseful for the writer as well as the reader (right? on the edge of your seat?)
There are thousands and thousands of Constitutionalist writers and web sites out there, so I will not discuss the virtual shredding of the 10 Bill of Rights over the years. It's been done before - hardly a one of them is truly respected at this point. Amendment X, though, is the neglected item that, had it been respected, would have kept this country a better place. It is clear and concise:
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.The idea is, you read through this document, which mentions a common defense, coinage of money, raising of funds, controlling the budget, elections, and other administration duties, and anything not specified is NOT! THE! FEDERAL! GOVERNMENT'S! JOB!
But, but, but .. the General Welfare Clause. It's always that infernal "General Welfare" "clause", that allegedly says the FEDS can do whatever they want, for our welfare, of course. Yes, I put even "clause" in quotes, because it's not a part of the detailed wording of the 2 sections it appears in, other than as introductions. It's not a part of the workings of the new US Federal Government as described by the Founders in this document.
Let's just look at the 2 places in which this clause appears in The US Constitution. One is in the general introduction, explaining why these wise and illustrious men were creating this Federal Government to begin with:
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.Here is the Introduction of Article 1, Section 8, on the "Powers of Congress:
[Don't mind the spelling errors. Our Founders were blessed to work in an era lacking spell-check and spell-Commies.]
The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;All one has to do is to read just below that, as the powers of Congress are spelled out. This intro.'s use of the term "welfare" has to do with money only, as in properly taking care of money and keeping a sound budget. It has nothing to do with WIC programs, Section 8, or Federal block grants.
The use of that "General Welfare" term from these 2 places, in the basic introduction to the document itself, and then an introduction to Article 1, Section 8, to cover anything and everything, completely in violation of B.o.R - X is what's caused Constitutional suicide.
Peak Stupidity just had to get that out of its system. Next we will look at each Amendment after #10, and see if Peak Constitutional Amendment occurred at the signing of this document.
* I write this to explain again that those 1st 10 were part of the document as originally signed. They really aren't amendments to it, the term used for them notwithstanding.
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A natural political alliance, per Matthew Richer (VDare)
Posted On: Wednesday - February 26th 2020 6:47PM MST
In Topics: Immigration Stupidity Liberty/Libertarianism Educational Stupidity
I have a back-log of great VDare articles to mention, and this one is from early this month. A writer named Matthew Richer asks Immigration Patriots And Vaccine Skeptics—A Natural Alliance? It sounds like kind of an obscure wonky political point, but anti-vaccination parents are many and are ignored and ridiculed by the Lyin' Press just as anti-immigration-invasion people are.
VDare, and I believe the writer too, haven't picked a side in the vaccination argument and Peak Stupidity hasn't really either. I haven't gotten into any of the evidence one way or another, but I really doubt that these parents are all full of it. Even without picking a side, I still have, in a way, by being a Libertarian.
Libertarianism doesn't work very well in crowed places (another reason for the Reason-magazine idiots to back off their open-borders stupidity), as we can see with the vaccination business. What do you do with your kids, if the rest of the school doesn't want to be around them, as possible carriers of diseases, but then again, if their kids are all vaccinated, WTH are they worried about? No matter what, as we can see from this corona virus deal, the closer people live together, the worse everything gets.
In a free country there IS a simple solution - schools free of government control to begin with. Don't want to be part of the immunizations? Go off on your own and make your own school for these kids.
That all being totally off Matthew Richer's point, let me paste in some excerpts:
If GOP strategists really think the party is having trouble with suburban white women because they of what they wrongly believe to be a nasty anti-immigrant racial animus, here’s an idea: seek common cause with the very many suburban moms worried about mandatory vaccination—and make sure they know that Open Borders and mass immigration isn’t helping their cause or the health of their children. Unvaccinated “migrants” from the Third World bring Third World diseases, some of them fatal. You can’t fight the statist push for more and more childhood vaccinations if a disease-bearing horde is crossing the border every day.This is something that Brenda Walker, in particular, over at VDare, has written much about. The quality of life degradation from the illegal immigrants as well as from massive numbers of legal ones* has been covered by her for many years. There are diseases that Americans as long ago as the 1970s were sure would never be seen again, that are reappearing due to massive immigration. There is an almost willful lack of control, maybe not by the rank-and-file immigration officers, but by the management in Washington, FS. The modern day screening ain't exactly like the Ellis Island scene seen in The Godfather.
Here's some more good stuff with a Libertarian emphasis (suggestion) from Mr. Richer:
Problem is, white people who work together to exercise their sovereign rights are, these days, guilty of a grievous Thought Crime. This explains the MSM’s frequent Two Minutes Hate against “anti-vaxxers.” The Washington Post’s Juliette Kayyem has argued that parents who decline to vaccinate their children should be arrested and prosecuted [Antivaxxers are dangerous. Make them face isolation, fines, arrests, April 30, 2019]. Scribes at the Boston Herald think parents who decline vaccinations should be hanged [Preying on Parents’ Fear, May 8, 2017]. That’s quite something given that Massachusetts doesn’t execute cop killers.As we've noted before, Conservatives have a lot to learn from the Libertarians, and vice versa.
Yet beyond the obvious racial aspect of the Left’s campaign against white anti-vaxxers is the statist impulse behind it. The Left is pathologically devoted to socialized medicine and healthcare mandates for the obvious reason that if the government can control the public’s healthcare, they can control the public that depends on it.
Similarly, undermining the family unit removes an obstacle to the Left’s collectivist ambitions [The Left’s War on the Family, by Thomas S. Garlinghouse, American Thinker, February 24, 2004]. What better way to undermine the family than to seize control of medical decisions for children?
[There are loads of links in the original article, as is the way of VDare.]
* There are still safeguards in place,such as required TB testing, etc. for legal immigrants before a green card is issued. Who knows, though, how corrupt some of that has become? You've got recent immigrants as immigration lawyers - no reason it isn't the same for doctors doing this work.
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Dems charge Trump with Russian March Madness collusion
Posted On: Wednesday - February 26th 2020 10:35AM MST
In Topics: The Russians Humor Trump Bread and Circuses
[H/T to the Comanche driver who suggested a post on this breaking story*]
You
This "March Madness" coming is just another part of the Bread & Circuses provided for Americans to keep their minds "off the ball". It's one of the sportsball circuses that I never have kept up with, as basketball is in no way something I'd give a single COVID-19-infected rat's ass about, even if it were in a tasty broth.
Lots of people do care however, most, I gather, either because they believe they can make a few bucks off these NCAA playoffs or they want to "be true to their school, now, rah-rah-rah, sis-koom-ba". Well, the breaking story* is that there is Russian Collusion going on that may interfere with the outcome of the Final Four.
See, the Blue-squad of Democrats has spent a lot of time over the last 3 years trying to prove collusion between the Russians and President Donald Trump. After it turned out that a few thousand dollars spent on Facebook ads or tweets was not the biggest factor in the world affecting the Presidential election of 2016, the Blue-squad tried a different tack. It wasn't the Russians so much as the Ukrainians, they being right next door anyway and former co-Soviets of the USSR and all. Trump was accused of colluding with the Ukrainians to look into the actions of one Joe Biden, of the Blue-squad himself, regarding his obtaining special favors for his footloose son Hunter (yes, that's the kid's 1st name - see what I mean?)
Well, the 2nd attempt of a take-down of the US President based on collusion with foreign nations was stymied by that surprise evidence that Trump's phone call in question was not anything any normal person would see a problem with.
Ahaaa! Now, it's the Russians again, and they are planning on influencing the outcome of the Final Four! This is a serious allegation here. Donald Trump's Alma Mater, the Wharton School of Business, may not itself be in the Final Four, or even the Initial 32, but, well, those guys have got enough money to probably make some big bets.
Is a sitting US President using the influence of a foreign enemy, well at least 30 years ago they were, to help his Alma Mater get into the NCAA playoffs.... or at least, into the NCAA? Yes, there is that minor detail that the Wharton MBA program has nothing but a coed intramural basketball league. However, the Russian Bear is a powerful foe, and coeds can become single-eds easily these days with simple out-patient operations, the co-pays and deductibles of which would be covered by ... you guessed it, Russian strongman Putin, of course. Could this whole ruse of The Ruse be any more transparent?
As a backup impeachment charge, the Blue-squad, led by point-guard Nancy Pelosi, maintains that, if this collusion is not about
This is criminal, outrageous, and egregious! Compared to Watergate, a simple breaking and entering, with neither any money changing hands nor any basketball being played, this is very much an impeachable offense. Per the wording of US Constitution Article 2, Section 4, the Democrats call out this latest impeachable foul of the Trump Administration, dubbed Slam-Dunk-Gate**, an act of High Traveling and Palming.
Penalties for a conviction by the US Senate will be the removal of the President from office for one quarter-term. The current bench-sitter slated to be substituted in per the obscure US Constitutional By-Laws is one Ruth Bader Ginsberg, senior member of the Supreme Court, currently sidelined due to brain injuries incurred last session due to old age.
* Yes, just a story... for fun.
** Of course, this scandal must have a gate at the end of it's title. It's been the American way for 4 1/2 decades, and we sure ain't changing it now!
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A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich - Book Review
Posted On: Tuesday - February 25th 2020 12:29PM MST
In Topics: History Books Socialism/Communism
Commenter MBlanc46, under our post of Alexander Solzhenitsyn quotes about the Soviet Gulags, suggested his short book One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich as a good start in appreciating the works of this great author. Thank you, Mr. Blanc, done and done.
As the writer of the Afterword, one Eric Bogosian, says, this is not really a novel. The grueling day of bitter cold, work, avoidance of trouble and meager food, on what is considered a LUCKY DAY in the life of 10-year-term Gulag zek (prisoner) Shukhov* is more like a documentary to me, though Mr. Bogosian differs on that (the Foreword and Afterword are well worth reading). Mr. Solzhenitsyn published this book in 1960, during the long dark period of Josef's Stalin's long reign of terror over the Soviet people in Communist Russia.
It was a brave thing just to publish it. Keep in mind that what got men into the Gulag to begin with was any kind of mention of dissatisfaction with, or criticism of, the Communist system or authorities, with no due process, just a whisking away at any time to a life of hell without the heat part. There were millions of men in these Gulags, the work camp/prisons in Siberia, latitude in the 60s to 70s North, on the eastern end of the huge Eurasian land mass, making it a "Continental Climate", one of the most brutal climates shy of the Arctic/Antarctic. As someone who doesn't like the cold, the cold alone would make this a fearsome place.
It's a well-written story of that one day of a life in the Gulag. The basic theme is on the courage needed to survive. I'd heard that expression before, "courage to survive". Please read the book and imagine the struggle Mr. Shukhov would have to not just take out a guard and end all the suffering of every day for him, only broken by 7 hours of sleep and the cherished mealtimes of soup of uncertain consistency. As the story notes, it wouldn't take much out of the ordinary in any given day of the 10 year stretch to cause some official to up the term to 20.
Here and there, this book brings out some points that show a little bit of light in human nature. The first is the matter of the work of these prisoners. Firstly, Mr. Shukhov and his gang, including his savvy, loyal squad leader, have to scrounge up material to do their job, even at the risk of being punished for that. Getting away with dragging would have resulted in a lack of nourishment eventually, meaning death by some point in the brutal cold.
Just to keep warm as a starting reason, this group works quickly and efficiently in building a block wall for a power plant under extremely adverse conditions. By some point in the day's work the point becomes the individuals', including the narrator's, satisfaction of a job well done. That theme can also be seen in a scene in Cool Hand Luke (PS Review), and somewhat to that effect in a scene in The Shawshank Redemption.
Another neat vignette in this one day of Mr. Denisovich is one that lets us know that the power of the vile bureaucratic overseers of this work prison is not absolute, at least. At one point, one of the non-working supervisors finds out about some filtched material being used in the job. As he threatens to double the squad leaders' prison term, within the crew, the power of loyalty is shown, as a shovel is pulled out near to his head and he becomes aware of the limits of his power. This is probably the most uplifting scene in the story.
This is a well-written, easily/quickly read book, with a description of life in the Gulag that is fairly close to what I would have imagined. Those of us over an age in which we were well familiar with the Cold War and stories of life in the USSR and East Bloc perhaps have ideas about these terrible times already ingrained in us. It's why guys like me lose our humor when these young Communists of today come crawling out of the woodwork.
Hopefully I will get to the much longer and (I assume) more comprehensive Gulag Archipelago soon. In the most famous quote from that book, contained in the link up top, we should understand why Americans still gather together as they did in Richmond, Virginia last month. No, I doubt 5% of them have read either of these books. Many may know the quote. Many instinctively know the deal. We can't let this sort of thing happen. Keep your guns, and be ready to use them when it all comes down to that. It is not necessarily gonna be "different this time".
From the last page of One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich:
Shukhov went to sleep fully content. He'd had many strokes of luck that day: they hadn't put him in the cells; they hadn't sent his squad to the settlement [Working out in the open in the extreme cold]; he'd swiped a bowl of kasha at dinner; the squad leader had fixed the rates well; he'd build a wall and enjoyed doing it; he'd smuggled that bit of hacksaw blade through [Not for escape, just to help him get jobs done.]; he'd earned a favor from Tzezar that evening; he'd bought that tobacco. And he hadn't fallen ill. He'd got over it.
A day without a dark cloud. Almost a happy day.
There were three thousand six hundred and fifty-three days like that in his stretch. From the first clang of the rail to the last clang of the rail.
Three thousand six hundred and fifty-three days.
The three extra days were for leap years.
* This is the narrator's/zek's name as used throughout most of the day (the book), though he is called Ivan Denisovich occasionally. I'm not sure if Shukhov is a prisoner name, as they have numbers anyway, or just his preferred name. This is not explained.
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Death Metal Greta
Posted On: Tuesday - February 25th 2020 9:58AM MST
In Topics: Music Humor Global Climate Stupidity
I am not turned on by Greta Thunburg, I swear to you. However, Greta has turned me on to Death Metal, a bit at least, with this one, thanks to youtuber FridaysForFuture. "All music written and performed by John Mollusk. Inspired by, and all lyrics by Greta Thunberg." Mr. Mollusk is also into "Thrash Metal", which I can well imagine but would figure is hard for a Mollusk, lacking the backbone and all...
If she would just smile a little more, let her hair out, nice and straight and silky with bangs, be 10 years older, dress in what I assume is the more traditional Swedish garb, spend more time in a greenhouse than in the UN for her mental health, and stop with the Global Climate DisruptionTM claptrap, Greta and I could be a lot closer. I like sailing, so there's that ...
Steve Sailer wonders what Greta Thunberg's childhood was like, as does Tom Petty:
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Hellooo???
Posted On: Monday - February 24th 2020 1:06PM MST
In Topics: Salesmen Curmudgeonry Big-Biz Stupidity Customer Care
Just a site note: I'm gonna add a few more Topic Keys, as I keep running into a lack of the really appropriate category for some posts. In this case "Customer Care", the new term for service. A lot of the posts with the Curmudgeonry key should have this new Customer Care key too. Some time soon, I will add a few more Topic Keys, than go through all the posts and divvy out more of the keys to the posts. I think that'll take a while ...
Here's the story now. There's nobody at the counter half the time now. I'm talking hotel lobbies and convenience stores - that's what I've noticed in particular. You come down to the lobby for something, maybe checking out, and you don't see anyone. I get that people cost money, and companies are running as lean as they can. You've got to have someone out front though. They seem to all be stuck somewhere far away, working or not working, I don't know, to where you can't even see them from any angle.
In the old days, there at least was that little mechanical bell sitting there. You wouldn't feel rude to ring that thing. There are no bells there now. You've got to say something, and NOBODY gets the whole clearing-the-throat thing anymore ("You OK?"). As a service to any readers who are both computer-savvy AND give a damn, I give this suggestion: How about
Yes, I know there are cameras, so that these hidden employees can glance at monitors looking for customers to serve. Maybe corporate reckons they will pay attention and come right out when needed. Nah. I also get that retail can be boring and doesn't pay well. I would guess that most of these hidden employees are spending time on their own smart phones doing who knows what, until they realize someone is out front, somehow. Is it too much to ask that they do their internet transactions on a computer screen right behind the counter at front. It works great, as the customer will often be fooled into thinking this agent is busy doing some kind of work (sometimes the case, even):
"Yes Sir, are you checking out? I can help you in just a ..." [Mashes "Place in shopping cart"] " ... minute with ... ["Continue Shopping"] " ... that."
At the gas stations, the small operations have the single employee in the place running around, in the back grabbing boxes, stocking candy bars, back to the counter, out in the store to sweep... it's ridiculous. I'm sure Corporate believes that all the cameras will keep the "shrinkage" down, even with the one guy all over the store. Again, I doubt it works as planned. You think when some petty thief wearing a hoody stuffs things a few things into his coat and walks out, this single guy will know about it, much less give a damn? If he does, really, will the 5-0 be called in to review the video from all angles and go find the guy?
Because the cash price for gas is rightfully cheaper often, I go inside once, and often twice, to pay or get change back for a fill-up. I first have to find the one guy.
This post is not a rant about the individuals, you can see, but the Big Corporate stupidity that thinks it's a good arrangement, having nobody around for service. Retail doesn't pay very well, and standing around is boring, and why not feed that screen addition when there's nothing to do? I am not good at this "sector", I want no part of it, and have a fun post coming up to illustrate just that. This is about the Corporate know-it-alls wanting to save on the employee costs, but I really wonder if they lose it all on theft and loss of goodwill.
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The Professional Educators
Posted On: Saturday - February 22nd 2020 9:02PM MST
In Topics: Educational Stupidity Scams
Peak Stupidity has verbally beaten on the Schools of Education before, such as in our post "Advancements in Higher Education" past fall. That one was written after I'd read some BS, obviously lifted straight out of an Education Masters program textbook. describing the on-going education for elementary school kids. The stupidity described therein was in the use of many pseudo-technical terms that I don't (and don't want to) understand, much less the kids by the teacher in her one-sheet newsletter boasting of the fine learning process going on.
These ladies (as they are all, 100% of 'em) seem to be carrying on with their Masters work, as experiments on the kids. I don't mean that they are taking data and writing reports, as one could easily get in trouble nowadays for, like "judging the kids". It seems like they are simply taking their many years of "Education" education a bit too seriously, meaning, seriously. In the minds of schoolteachers now, they are "Professional Educators", so they've got to prove it those ideas from all their taxpayer-guaranteed-loan-supported Professional Education classes. The last thing they are up for is just straight-up teaching like some old-timey one-room schoolhouse lady, who never got her Masters.
The latest thing I noticed isn't from these newsletters, though they still come. No, I see the learning process being used by this particular teacher as being dragged out to Kingdom Come. The class is working on fractions. From the weeks and weeks of sheets of paper, I can see that the big concept in education here is to have the kids understand how to divide up polygons and see what 1/2 or 1/4 means. You know, that might be a good thing for one or two days. They get to color. Nope, no stickers, so that's disappointing to your average kid, but you get your coloring fix in.
That's fine for a day or two, but then get the hell ON it. Let them write out some fractions, get them started adding or subtraction them at least, what with the rules of only common denominators and all. Sure, you can use the polygons again to show them how this works, how 1/2 = 2/4 and so on. They can memorize the rules and understand them later, if it comes down to it.
Just get it done. These are bright kids and they will really start to get a bad impression of math if this drawing lines through rectangles goes on for the rest of the month. (And who has time, what with black history month and all? Many of the papers I've seen in February involve people I've never ever heard of, and I'm a guy with a blog!)
These teachers are beating this "understanding" process to death. I believe it would be a lot better if not a one of these elementary school teachers had ever set foot in an education class. They'd have been better off getting that BS and MrS at the same time. As we've discussed in our rants against feminism, there's no time like 22-30 years old to crank those little ones out, and a teaching job later goes along very well with raising kids older than toddlers.
I'm sure lots of these nice ladies really would have been happier to have avoided the whole stupid drudgery of the Ed. School themselves, but as I've written before, it's a big scam (with other embedded scams, such as the old great University textbook scam - 2nd time I fell for that this semester!). Women LUV LUV LUV kids of elementary school age in hopefully one of those green-on-schooldigger schools. Could they not be left to nurture them with common sense and the 3-R's, and leave that Ed-School crap behind? I mean, hopefully a BS provides enough knowledge to stay ahead of 5th graders, but I wouldn't put all my money on that now.
Nope, gotta get that loan and waste 1 to 4 years getting that piece of paper. ITS! THE! LAW!
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Shen Yun - coming to a country near you
Posted On: Friday - February 21st 2020 8:48AM MST
In Topics: Humor History China Bible/Religion Socialism/Communism
America is no longer the land of a homogenized people, as if this were 1975, with a sprinkling of very bright and interesting people from foreign lands, per John Derbyshire's "salt in the stew" expression. Still, South Alabama?? That's where I saw a big billboard for this Shen Yun deal, along with some ads where I live. Are we supposed to know who they are?
I have connections with China, but other than knowing, from the posters and billboards, that there will be some kind of ballet dancing, this is new to me. Chinese people I know don't seem to have made any plans for Shen Yun.
It turns out, upon my research*, that, yes, this is a dance show, but there's some more interesting things about this group of Shen Yunners. From their FAQ ("FAQ" - how quaint, but I LIKE it.), one can see that this outfit is part of the Falun Gong movement. This movement, NOT, as one would expect, a Chinese version of the American Gong Show, was BIG in China in the late 1990s, and that's when the government there decided to crack the whip on those people that would get up early to do stretches, jumping jacks, and meditation right out in public.
It's really not so much the public exercising that was the problem, as Chinese older women especially, love to get together in big groups and do that for their not-always-so-girly figures. Falun Gong had gotten big and somewhat political, and they made it clear that they don't like Communism. In many ways, the Chinese Gov't is less Communist than America's Feral Gov't, but they sure make a serious effort to control lots of things that really cause them more ill will than benefit (Coronavirus info. being a good example). Control freaks is what they are, and there was a big clash, as from a gong, in 1999.
I didn't know this crowd was still around. They aren't very welcome in China, so they have taken their message to the Chinese people in (at least) America, who are no small "sprinkling of salt" contingent anymore. Hence the billboards.
Shen Yun is a display of ancient 5,000 year-old** Chinese culture that they maintain, per the FAQ, the Chinese Gov't has tried to erase. I believe they mean the hard-core Mao-era government mostly, not so much that of today, and I gotta say I agree with the tyrant Mao on one thing - those thousands of characters are a pain in the ass! Hopefully there's more to the culture that doesn't require sitting at home memorizing stuff from flash cards.
These people being serious anti-Commies has made more interested in attending, though, I'd prefer it be more of some kind of ancient cultural monster-ox-cart show vs. dancing. The dancers will be beautiful, of course, but what about the coronavirus scare? I've seen Chinese pop singers singing on youtube videos with face masks on. That would look stupid - take your chances, ladies - if it doesn't kill you it'll only make you stronger ... kind of like China's bout with Communism, come to think about it.
* ... "research" these days meaning spending a minute searching it up.
** I've heard it's really more like no more than 3,600 years, but who's counting?
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